Countdown to kickoff of prep season gets an early start Inside
Think of this as a movie trailer. A preview of coming attractions. Today we are getting an extra-early head start on the high school football season, and this is my abbreviated, metro-centric primer for the next 3½ weeks.
What’s ahead, exactly, between today and Aug. 23, when Manzano and Atrisco Heritage get the first official football in the air in 2017?
Plenty.
As always, we are giving each of our 24 metro-area schools their own previews, and the first of those — defending Class 5A state champion St. Pius — rolls out today, three days earlier than usual.
There is a slight alteration to the format this year; we are running expanded information capsules on the first 19 teams, with no accompanying story. It’s more streamlined this way, I think.
I will end the countdown with my choices for the top five metro programs, leading up to Opening Night, with stories and capsules on those top-five selections. I have already picked my five teams and ranked them, but you’ll have to wait several weeks before our slow reveal.
This year will also be slightly adjusted in the following way: the 24
will not necessarily run on consecutive days, as they have the past few years. So you’ll need to watch out for your school. Several days, there won’t be a preview. Other days, there may be two.
I again will have several of my annual preseason items: a story on the new head coaches in the metro area (there are four, including at St. Pius); a comprehensive schedule package, including a week-by-week rundown of every game, plus a glance at some of the potentially intriguing games during each of the 11 regularseason weekends; and a peek at some of the southern powers in the larger classes as we get a little closer to Week 1.
For this Sunday, I have put together a playersto-watch package that is more detailed than in previous years. As always, I’ve got other tasty preseason features coming down the pike.
Toned down
Whereas last year saw a seismic shift in classes and districts, 2017, the second in a two-year block, will have a hushed tone by comparison.
The most significant change occurred when Santa Fe decided to go independent for this season. This created a potential mess for La Cueva, Manzano, Eldorado and Sandia, who faced the prospect of playing nine rather than 10 games since the Demons were in their district.
Santa Fe’s decision forced the schedulemakers at Albuquerque Public Schools to do some nifty reshuffling in terms of bye weeks and nondistrict opponents to ensure that the Bears, Monarchs, Burnt Orange — boy, do I love to needle the Eldorado faithful — and Matadors all had full 10-game schedules.
And while I rightfully take issue with APS for many things, on this subject they deserve highest marks. Kudos for ensuring that everyone will play 10 games.
And yes, in a theme that will be recurring from now probably through mid-November, all of APS continues to chase the hybrid known as Clevelancho — although to a somewhat lesser degree this year than in recent seasons. The gap is not nearly as wide as we’ve seen. From the metro area, Manzano and La Cueva look best equipped to get into the mix around Thanksgiving, but we’ll see. (Las Cruces High is possibly the class of the entire state, but we’ll delve into that a bit further down the road.)
Rio Rancho and Cleveland have combined to produce three straight undefeated state championship seasons, which is quite remarkable. It has now been 28 years (1989; Highland) since any Albuquerque public school other than La Cueva has won a football blue trophy. That’s a streak I’d like to see end, and soon.
I’ll have another column on Opening Day and we’ll talk some more about the major storylines for 2017, both inside and outside the metro area. And the Journal’s Ken Sickenger and I will resume our weekly picks when the regular season arrives. If I were an attention fiend, I’d point out that I destroyed him last season, going wire-to-wire. But I’m not. So I won’t.
The first official day of the preseason is Monday, as schools across seven divisions hit the field running.
We couldn’t wait that long, so we’re taking a head start. Enjoy.